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Plex Blog

September 12, 2024

The Future of Plex: Focused, Streamlined, and Ready for Feedback

Are you ready for some ch-ch-ch-ch-changes?

We are excited to announce some significant updates that will enhance how you experience the media you love using Plex. Over the years, Plex has grown to include a wide range of media types—movies, shows, music, photos, Live TV, and more. However, as technology advances and user preferences evolve, we must also adapt to continue delivering the best service possible. Today, we are unveiling two key initiatives that will shape the future of Plex.

Same Mission. New, More Focused Experiences

Our mission here at Plex is to create a global community where everyone can discover, experience, and share all of the entertainment that matters to them. At the center of that mission is our Plex app, which has evolved into the go-to entertainment platform for fans to discover movies, shows, fellow fans, and of course, what it’s like to enjoy streaming again.

That all sounds great, right? “But what about photos and music?” you ask.

Good question. Fear not, we’ve got the answer: dedicated companion apps.

As we continue to streamline the Plex app, making it more intuitive, faster, and better suited to discovery and personalization of your movie and TV experience, we will be migrating music and photos support to their own dedicated companion applications.

  • Introducing Plex Photos Beta: We are thrilled to announce the release of the Plex Photos Beta, available today for iOS and Android mobile. This new app is designed to provide you with a focused experience to engage with your photo libraries stored on Plex Media Servers. Whether you’re reminiscing over family photos or sharing backups of your professional photography images, Plex Photos offers a streamlined experience that is easy to navigate and enjoyable to use. We encourage you to download the beta, explore its capabilities, and share your feedback with us in the forums. Your input is invaluable as we work to improve the app before its public release.
  • Plex music with Plexamp: Our journey toward specialized apps began with Plexamp, our dedicated music application. Plexamp was developed with the sole purpose of delivering an exceptional music experience, complete with unique features like custom radios and mixes, Guest DJ, visualizers, and offline listening.

The success of Plexamp has shown us the benefits of focusing on specific media types, and we are hopeful that Plex Photos will deliver a similarly focused experience. By creating dedicated apps, we can better cater to the needs of our users, ensuring that each app is optimized for its specific media type.

Empowering Developers with Open APIs for Plex Media Server

In addition to these updates, we are excited to announce that we will be kicking off a Plex developer program to expand the capabilities of Plex Media Server libraries and provide support for custom media types. This move empowers our developer community to create additional client applications, introduce innovative features, and support a wider array of media types on the Plex platform. Whether you’re interested in developing a new app for ebooks, podcasts, or even niche media types, open APIs will provide the tools you need to bring your ideas to life. This initiative is part of our broader goal to enhance the personal media experience and expand the capabilities of Plex. We believe that by inviting collaboration and innovation from our community, we can unlock new possibilities and continue to push the boundaries of what Plex can do.

  • API updates and developer support: To support this initiative, we will also be releasing updates to our APIs, including improved documentation, and enhanced forum support. We understand that our users have diverse needs and interests, and we are committed to providing the resources necessary for developers to create custom libraries and apps that can integrate seamlessly with the Plex Media Server. This is just the beginning—we will have more to announce on this topic soon, and we’ll do so here.

The Rationale Behind the Changes

These updates are driven by a combination of user data, market trends, and our commitment to delivering the best possible Plex experience.

Focused Development for Better User Experience

Currently, music playback is utilized by only 2.5% of our users, while photos are accessed by just 0.2% on a monthly basis. This means that we are including resources and technical debt within the Plex app that only a small fraction of our users engage with. By migrating these features to dedicated companion apps, we can concentrate our development efforts on creating the best possible experience for the media types that our users interact with most frequently. This also reduces the complexity of the Plex app, making it faster, more responsive, and easier to use.

  • Streamlining the Plex app: By focusing solely on movies, shows, Live TV, and community, we can make it more intuitive and user-friendly. For instance, searching for and discovering content will become more straightforward, as you will no longer have to sift through music tracks or photo albums to find the movies or shows you want to watch. The app’s user interface will be optimized for video content, offering a cleaner, more focused experience that is tailored to your viewing habits. Plus your entertainment experience will be made even richer by interactions with friends and fellow fans.
  • Enhanced music and photos apps: Companion apps like Plexamp and Plex Photos allow us to deliver specialized features and improvements that are tailored to the unique needs of music and photo enthusiasts. For example, Plexamp’s mixes, visualizers, and offline listening capabilities are all designed to enhance the music listening experience. Similarly, Plex Photos will include features like improved search, casting to TVs, and seamless integration with your existing Plex Media Server library.

Transparency and Timeline

We believe in being transparent with our users throughout this transition, and we want to ensure you know exactly what to expect:

  • Today: We are excited to release the Plex Photos Beta, which you can download and start using immediately. This is an open beta, meaning anyone can participate, and we encourage you to provide feedback in our forums, so we can continue to improve the app.
  • Early Q4: Following the beta period, we plan to release the public version of Plex Photos. This version will include additional features that weren’t ready by beta release and improvements based on your feedback.
  • Late Q4 / Early Q1: As we transition to dedicated companion apps, we will begin phasing out support for music and photos in the Plex mobile app for iOS and Android. We will provide ample notice and resources to help you transition to the new companion apps.
  • 2025: We are planning to expand device support for Plex Photos, while deprecating music and photos playback in the primary Plex (movies & shows) application. This means that by early 2025, the Plex app will be entirely focused on the discovery of movies, shows, TV, and fellow fans.

We Want to Say Thank You!

This is just another exciting chapter in fulfilling our mission here at Plex. As we transition to dedicated companion apps for music and photos, we are also laying the groundwork for a more dynamic and customizable platform. Your feedback and contributions have always been invaluable to us, and we are eager to hear your thoughts on the Plex Photos Beta. Together, we can refine these new experiences and continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible with digital media.

Thank you for being a part of the Plex community. We’re excited about this journey and look forward to seeing what you will create with us in the future.

Before We Go…

Here’s Plex VP of Product Design, Jason Williams with a first look at Plex Photos.

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